1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to the field of balls for sports including baseball, softball and golf, and more particularly, concerns a compound safety ball which is realistically and especially practically useful in such sports, especially for training, development and practice but has safety characteristics and superlative characteristics simulative of regulation-type balls.
2. Related Art
In the training of young athletes such as in league baseball, there is a need to train these athletes with realism. Thus, players need to learn the "heft," feel and sound of a baseball or fast-pitch or slow-pitch type softball when throwing, hitting or catching the ball. At the same time, there is a desire to introduce players to these sports safely and to avoid intimidating the young player. The regulation baseball truly can be very intimidating, especially to the young, uninitiated player. Moreover, to be struck through accident or inadvertence or ineptness by a regulation baseball, for example, can be so dangerous and so frightening that the young athlete may always after that have a degree of fear of the ball, and thus be "ball shy" to such an extent that it interferes with development of the player's skill level and confidence.
There is accordingly a need to provide a suitable training or practice ball for baseball players, particularly during their younger years, wherein the ball will be a regulation-simulative ball yet can be used for indoor and outdoor coaching, training, and play by baseball players, without danger of breaking a window or causing other damage. It is further desired that such a ball have intrinsic safety with such characteristics that it that it can safely strike a player in the head or chest without injury, and be safe for use around younger players, especially during their initial training.
It has been known for many years to provide balls which have limited range or limited mass, but are nevertheless not useful in the simulation or actual use of sports. An example is the well-known perforated ball available for many years in the marketplace which is of hollow, molded polyethylene or similar low-cost polymer, in which circular apertures are formed so that the ball will have very high aerodynamic drag. For example, a hollow, perforated ball, being of very low mass, with greatly reduced range has been commercially available under the trade name or designation "WIFFLE." It is considered to be part of the known art, and will here be referred to as a hollow, perforated polymer ("HPP") ball. An HPP ball has such low mass that it prevents a child from being injured by impact. It is not, however, a useful ball for actual sports, for it is far too light and far too limited in range. The HPP ball is useful merely for use in small rooms, or in games for children, or for frivolous, playful or trivial use by persons of any age.
Moreover, regulation balls travel a very great distance when hit. In ball practice, this can present a problem of hitting balls outside a ballpark, for example, and can stretch practice time intervals required during "shagging" of balls.
With regard to regulation-size softballs, such as those of smaller diameters, there are similar considerations and needs.
Other sports are believed to have similar needs. In golf practice, for example, it would be desirable to have practice balls that can be hit realistically with the usual sound and feel produced by club head contact of the ball resulting from a proper stroke, and yet which will travel a reduced distance. And, if such a practice ball were to strike a person, there would be less likelihood of injury to the person struck than by a regulation ball.
There have been a myriad of ball designs employing resilient material for softening the impact of the ball.
For example, U.S. Patents Stillinger U.S. Pat. No. 5,413,331, Watson et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,007,639, Song U.S. Pat. No. 4,880,233 and Wexler U.S. Pat. No. 4,738,450 all relate to attempts to make balls which are softer, more yieldable, or which give better safety for use with young or inexperienced players. The same is arguably true also of the balls of Tomar et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,660,830 and Ventura U.S. Pat. No. 4,598,909.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,529,200 to Miller is also noted as disclosing a ball having a spherical shell which is isolated from a preformed core by an anti-bonding agent. Ordinary leather cover surrounds the ball. So also, there is noted Kumasaka et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,463,951 describing a ball with a PVC outer layer separated from a polyurethane inner body by a water resistant film. Morgan U.S. Pat. No. 4,462,589 has a composite safety ball with a foam core surrounded by a heavy, tightly knit cover, again for safety reasons but has disadvantages. U.S. Pat. No. 4,415,154 to Engelhardt and U.S. Pat. No. 3,908,994 to Astron go to the concept of balls having a large hole pattern. None of these patents are believed to have aerodynamic qualities or regulation ball-simulative characteristics to satisfy the present requirements and objectives.
Among foreign references, French patent 2,504,019 discloses a hollow ball that has another hollow ball inside it. A space between these two is filled with a liquid to allow the inner ball to turn independently of the other. Or the space can be filled with a solid material. An interesting 1989 Soviet Union patent No. 1711929A1 Kesariiskii appears to contemplate a patterned outer ball which is optically transparent, and it contains an inner shell which has its own pattern and can move relative to the outer shell, so that color patterns change as the inner shell moves. A Canadian patent 493,100 to Roberts constitutes what appears to be a baseball but contains a soft core.
None of the balls revealed in these references is believed to have aerodynamic qualities or regulation ball-simulative characteristics or have the combination of features necessary to meet the present requirements and objects.